Eileen Ivers could have been a mathematician, but fortunately for the world of Celtic music she chose the path she was meant to pursue. And in mathematical terms, it’s all added up. A nine-time winner of all-Irish fiddle championships, Ivers is credited with changing the way the world thinks about the fiddle. The New York Times even dubbed her “The Jimi Hendrix of the violin.”

The parallel to the incomparable guitarist is a distinction the fiddle player gladly accepts. “I’ll take that one,” she said with a hearty laugh earlier this week in a phone interview with RSVP. “I’ve always looked at this as an amazing instrument that can live and breathe in so many different musical settings. It’s lovely to be able to alter what everyone thinks about fiddle music,” she added.

Ivers, who will be one of the headliners at the Newport Celtic Rock Festival this Saturday, is the daughter of Irish immigrants from County Mayo. She grew up in a heavily Irish section in the Bronx amid the Celtic music and step-dancing that was largely found in pockets of Irish-American communities back in the 1970s and early ‘80s. That was before Ivers came onto the Celtic music scene as a founding member of the female Celtic band Cherish the Ladies. She followed that up as fiddle player in Riverdance, the phenom that elevated Celtic music and dance, melded with various world beats, to the international stage.

Ivers started taking fiddle lessons when she was about 8 years old, though she started out with step-dancing after her mother “pushed her into it,” she recalled, adding, “It was a disaster.” When the step-dancing didn’t work out, she “bugged her parents to rent her a fiddle” and she started taking lessons with Martin Mulvihill, an Irish immigrant who taught hundreds of Irish American kids, she said. Ivers credits Mulvihill with exposing her to the fiddle’s wide musical range. “It can be passionate and heartfelt, or you can play it full force,” she said.

And though she appeared to be headed towards a solid career as a fiddle player after winning so many all-Ireland fiddle championships as a teenager, Ivers headed off to Iona College to study mathematics on a scholarship. She graduated magna cum laude, and though she thought of quitting to pursue a career as a musician, her parents talked her out of giving up a college education. “At one point I said I really want to play the fiddle and they said, ‘You’re, crazy kid. We never had this kind of opportunity.’ So I stuck it out and I’m so glad I did; music and math go hand-in-hand,” she said.

Page 2 of 2 - Ivers said she went for one job interview dressed up in a suit for a “corporate job” but she knew it wasn’t for her. “Life is amazing the way it unfolds — a year later I was touring with Hall and Oates.”

In 1999, she formed her own touring production, Eileen Ivers and Immigrant Soul, that evolved into the band she tours with today. In 2011, she created the multi-media show Beyond the Bog Road, which explores the Celtic musical and cultural traditions that laid the groundwork for Americana and bluegrass music. The CD to accompany the production will be released a few days after the band performs in Newport, where festival-goers will have the chance to hear the songs performed live.

In addition to Ivers, the Newport Celtic Rock Festival this Saturday at the Newport Yachting Center will feature 10 hours of Irish rock from Gaelic Storm, Black 47, Tartan Terrors, Celtica-Pipes Rock! and the The Fighting Jamesons. Starting at noon, the celebration of all things Celtic will also feature step-dancers, Guinness “Pour Your Own Pint” lessons, and fish and chips and corned beef and cabbage sandwiches for sale along with traditional festival fare.

General admission tickets to the festival are still available for the advance price of $30 through Aug. 22. The day-of event price will be $40. The Festival is free for children under the age of 12 as long as they are accompanied by an adult. Attendees will enjoy a flexible re-entry policy which allows festival-goers to explore downtown Newport as many times throughout the day and night as they would like. Tickets are available by visiting www.newportwaterfrontevents.com.